Analytical and computational study of a novel waste-heat-recovery radial expander

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It is estimated that 20-50% of the energy consumed by Canadian manufacturing processes is ultimately lost viawaste heat emitted in hot exhaust streams, cooling water, and heat transfer from hot surfaces and products.Recovering energy from this waste heat is an emission-free substitute for costly purchased fuels or electricity,and will significantly reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of Canadian industry. Theproposed research project will conduct an analytical and computational analysis of a novel waste heat recoveryconcept that extracts work from a pressurized fluid stream with a relatively low inlet temperature. The device isa radial turboexpander that recovers waste heat through frictional forces arising from the interaction betweenthe rotating machinery and fluid within the device. The geometrical simplicity of the conceptualizedturboexpander will make it much cheaper to manufacture and operate compared to existing heat recoverytechnologies, and is expected to achieve a high enough efficiency so as to be economical for extracting powerfrom waste heat in oil and gas processing facilities. Through first-principles analytical analysis and in-depthcomputational fluid dynamics simulations of the fluid flow within the expander, the research project willidentify the optimum expander configuration for maximum power and efficiency, investigate the sources ofaerodynamic losses within the device, and improve the expander design based on the knowledge of the losssources that are present. The project will lead to a novel device that can extract power from waste heat sourceswith much higher efficiencies and lower costs than are currently available, bringing significant financial andenvironmental savings to Canada's energy, oil and gas, and manufacturing industries.